Looking back upon the Atari Jaguar!

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Video Game Console - Atari Jaguar

Release - Test Markets in 1993, Nationally in 1994.

Lifespan - 1993-1996. Discontinued in 1996, still found in some retail until circa 1999.

   To a lot of people the Atari Jaguar was a laughable attempt at a gaming console back when it was released (and even to this day). But to me, as well as many others, the Jaguar is a fun little piece of gaming history that deserves to have a golden light shined upon it at least once. This, mighty Jaguar, is your golden light.

   Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s Atari ruled the gaming landscape with its 2600 home console and to this day many gaming fans who grew up in that era still enjoy sessions with their paddles and collect games and accessories to celebrate that moment in time. Sadly, Atari had a huge hand in the video game crash of the early to mid 80’s and since then had never seen the success and critical acclaim they once enjoyed. The Atari 5200 system was a commercial failure and the console itself has been pissed upon by almost every person who has owned it or had a chance to play it. It was huge, bulky, had a poor selection of games, and had one of the worst controllers to ever see release. And to top things off it was released into a crowded market where Atari had already been dominating with their 2600, which at the time was still insanely popular and outselling its competition. So why the hell would they think releasing a new console when their existing console was already the king of the mountain? Then Atari waited a few years and once Nintendo released their NES in the United States and brought the dying gaming market back to success they saw fit to release their 7800 console with a slew of existing (and aging) arcade hits. The 7800 as a gaming console was almost perfect in every way. It was backwards compatible with the 2600’s library of games and accessories, and the system featured modern games with graphics somewhat on par with the NES and Sega’s Master System. But Atari was too late to the party and consumers were already in love with the NES and Sega was moderately successful with their Master System and didn’t see any value in another console. Especially one that promoted nothing but updated editions of arcade games that have been out for 7+ years at that point. And again, Atari re-released their 2600 console into the market as the “2600 Jr.” and tried the tactic of having more than once console on store shelves at one time. The third strike was the fact that many kids during this time period still owned and actively played with their classic 2600 console and game library, so there was no need for the 7800 to really exist.

   It would appear as if Atari was finished with video games until they released the handheld Lynx system and announced a console known as the Panther, which was to be a 32-bit powerhouse. Due to behind closed doors reasoning Atari decided to move away from the Panther and work on a new 64-bit home gaming system known to us today as the Jaguar. Oddly enough, the Jaguar’s GPU and CPU were rumored to only be 32-bits each, and the console apparently had some other sub chip that was 64-bit but really didn’t help the existing 32-bit chips that powered the machine, thus legally giving Atari the right to promote their console as a 64-bit machine. That’s how I understand it anyway, I’ve read so many variations and versions of this story that it’s hard to really pinpoint exactly the method of thinking going on at Atari at this time, especially since the company was a mere husk of its former self. I've read another scenario that the two 32-bit chips added up to 64-bit when you "did the math" and Atari deemed that good enough to go to market with. But we won’t get too wrapped up with that. Anyhow, the Jaguar would see release in test markets in 1993 and then a full worldwide release in early 1994 with an ad print campaign and television commercials that boasted its power and advanced game selection and did its best to really market itself as a better alternative to the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, which both had been out several years and were only 16-bit machines. And Atari wanted to edge out the new 3DO system which was marketed as 32-bit and was more than twice the price, not to mention knew that Sony was going to be eventually launching its Playstation and Sega was about to promote its 32X Genesis add-on. One of my favorite TV ads for Jaguar was the one in the classroom with the teacher showing scenes from the games and asking the class to “do the math”. My other favorite commercial was the one where a teenager was playing Alien vs Predator and his mother kept bugging him about something, when he turned around he was greeted by an alien and not his mother. They were good commercials but unfortunately Atari was unable to move many systems due to lack of game selection. Also, the SNES and Genesis were offering huge hits with the promise of more triple a titles on the way, and the general public (and critics) noticing that most of the games weren’t much better looking than Jaguar’s 16-bit competitors causing them to speculate on Atari’s 64-bit claim.

   

 The early Jaguar games ranged from really good to really bad with some of the better titles being Tempest 2000, Alien vs Predator, Kasumi Ninja, and Iron Soldier, but none of which would be enough to make consumers want to own the console. I’m of the stern belief that Atari at one point had a following much like Apple does today (but on a lesser scale) in that there were Atari folk who would seek out products manufactured by the company regardless of if it was bad or good. And then there were the people who had to own every console on the market because they were true to life gaming fans who had to have everything. At any rate, I’ve had a lot of fun with Tempest 2000 and have fond memories of playing it with my friend Kenny back in the late 90’s when I was introducing him to the world of Jaguar. Alien vs Predator was another game that I’ve dumped countless hours into, so much so I bought some Atari book that was out at the time that gave you tips & tricks on certain games, AVP being one of them. For what it’s worth AVP was one of the few games that the Jaguar had at that time that looked much better than anything on the SNES or Genesis and as good as anything the 3DO was doing, though games would come out for the 3DO that looked far superior. Kasumi Ninja was a Mortal Kombat clone that was not well received by media and fans, though I do admit I have a major soft spot for the game and have sunk a lot of hours into beating it with every character. This game was one of the key reasons why I wanted to own a Jaguar, what can I say? Along with Kasumi Ninja I loved AVP and Tempest 2000 also and would recommend those interested to go out and give them a try, you may end up liking them too. A year or so later a bunch of Jaguar games would see release, but again, most of the titles were pretty poor with a few gems sparking from afar. Defender 2000 was extremely fast paced and fun and other games such as NBA Jam TE and Ultra Vortek served up some good times for me and a couple of my friends, but there was nothing that really stood out from the crop except for a colorful platformer known as Rayman. My god was Rayman fun! I played the game on both the Jaguar and the Playstation and I’ve always contested that the Jaguar version was superior. Same could be said for the Jaguar version of Doom, which I found to be the definitive port as far as consoles were concerned.

 

  It was around this time that Atari would release a CD add-on known as the Jaguar CD, in which you needed a Jaguar to operate. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, and it still doesn’t now, that Atari would release a CD system that you needed the cart based system to use knowing full well that not many Jaguar’s were in circulation. My guess is that they were hoping that games would be created that people wanted to play and folks would plunk down their hard earned cash and buy the Jaguar and Jaguar CD just to play them. In the end only a handful of games saw release on the Jaguar CD with the only notable titles being Iron Soldier II, Myst and Highlander. It wasn’t much sooner that Atari would begin running infomercials promoting the Jaguar and then finally pulling the plug on the console at some point in 1996. Oddly enough the system remained on some Wal-Mart store shelves until some time in 1997, with some reports claiming that people were still finding Jaguar’s tucked away and hidden behind other product all the way until 1999. And to the surprise of many, even though the Jaguar was officially discontinued and out of production at one point in late 1997 a company called Telegames began releasing titles for the system. It was during this time where I came across the one game that I’d rank as being the most addictive game on the system. That game is Breakout 2000. I remember spending many hours playing Breakout 2000 with a friend of mine when we were supposed to be in school and even though I’ve missed precious hours of biology and study hall, I can say it was worth every moment spent with the controller in my hand playing this game. It was that addicting to me. A few years later (2000 or 2001, maybe?) another batch of games saw release by a company called Songbird Productions and by this time Hasbro had gained the rights to Atari and its properties and released the code for the Jaguar to the public thus declaring it an open source for anyone who wants to develop for it. Over the next few years a small trickle of homebrew games would see release for the Jaguar and Jaguar CD and the system maintained a strong cult following with a few websites dedicated to bringing fans together and offering hardware and software to consumers, though by this time the Jaguar was strictly a hobbyist machine and 5-7 years out of the public eye.

   It wasn’t long until Jaguar consoles and games started popping up on eBay for ridiculous prices. At one point common Jaguar games were going for almost $70 for the cart only, with games that were more rare seeing prices well over $100 (some over $150). Demos of games that were never released as well as unfinished games soon began surfacing online with price tags in the thousands and for several years Jaguar products were fetching insane prices as retro-gaming nostalgia began to become a thing in the early 2000’s. I did notice that around 2007 and for a few years after that prices for Jaguar games and hardware had dropped quite a bit and the only items that fetched high prices were the rare items and the prototypes. As of this writing the average price of a Jaguar console and a couple of games is right around the $120-$150 mark, which is high but not totally unreasonable. The Jaguar CD unit however is well over $200-$250 due to its rarity. Games for the Jaguar seem to be selling now between $20-$60 each depending on how common the game was and whether or not it comes with its box, with the newer homebrew titles and super rare games selling at $100 or more. So while the prices have come down a bit they’re still a bit high if you’re looking to build a collection for yourself. It just shows you that the Jaguar does have a high collectible value and people who love retro-gaming are not afraid to spend the money to have one in their collection.

   Personally, I’d say that the Jaguar ranks among my top 10 favorite consoles of all-time and had some fun games that brought me a lot of enjoyment back in the day, with some games still holding some value and are enjoyable to this day. It was definitely an oddity back in its day, especially since the console eventually became a dental unit in offices all over the U.S.A, but it certainly wasn’t (and isn’t) as bad as the media and critics made it out to be. I think it’s one of those things that became popular opinion to crap all over the Jaguar and the general public just kind of rode along with it blindly, which is a shame because this cat had claws and offers a fun library of games that should be visited by those who haven’t had the chance. Check out Tempest 2000, Defender 2000, Breakout 2000, Alien vs Predator, Doom, Protector, Zero 5, and Rayman, then tell me that this console deserves its bad rap. I got my Jaguar as a Christmas present in 1996 by request and while other people I knew were getting the Sony Playstation or the Sega Saturn I knew what I wanted and I'm glad I got it. Eventually I would convince my friend Ken to get one and I'll always remember him calling me up early one Saturday morning excited that he just received his Jaguar via FedEx. He had some fond memories with the Jaguar too and kept his for a good long time until eventually either selling it or giving it to his brother. I kept mine knowing that it would be hard to separate myself from it. Well, that concludes my lookback at Atari's 64-bit Jaguar, I hope you liked what you read and be sure to let me know in the comments what your experiences with the Jag were. Until then, I’ll see you in game land.

"Keep creating" ~ Retro-X

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This article is © & ™ 2015 by RTX Productions LLC.